With the penultimate season finale of Game of Thrones hitting record-breaking numbers and the box office suffering one of the worst weekends in recent history, it looks like the time could be here when television has become more important than film. As big spectacle shows like Game of Thrones exhibit quite clearly, television is just as cinematic as the biggest studio tentpole summer offerings.

As groundbreaking television shows like the Knick and Twin Peaks demonstrate, respectively helmed by auteurs like Stephen Soderbergh and David Lynch exhibit, there is more room than ever now for artistic integrity on the small screen -- carving out a place where directors can tell long form stories with little interference from studio committee decision making. When Manohla Dargis of the New York Times starts seriously writing about Twin Peaks, looking at television with the same critical analysis that goes into independent film during Awards Season when critics begin choosing which movies will become part of the Oscar Conversation -- then we know television really has turned the corner and become the dominant form of media.

And while the return of Twin Peaks has clearly been good for Showtime and gotten people to sign up for their streaming service (the network doesn't release real viewership numbers but suggests about 2 million tune in each week once time-shifting is accounted for), it is clear that the audience tuning into the final two episode Finale tonight is going to be a lot smaller than those who tuned in to see the the Game of Thrones finale. We're talking a fraction of the audience and in some ways it's not that hard to understand why. Sure Game of Thrones has dragons and undead zombie things and red witches with sorcery but most of the show is grounded in reality with politics and relationships running front and center most of the time.

Twin Peaks is a little more ethereal and much harder to pin down. Lynch has defied expectations all season long and now that the finale is about to air it's time to talk about how genius some of what he's accomplished with the Return really is. The end of part 16 last week was absolutely amazing -- with Audry Horn's dance revealing a starkly lit truth that Lynch has masterfully hidden from sight until now. What this finale image before the credits suggests is that there are metaphors playing out on our television screens. It's not as simple as we're watching a dream -- it's more like a dream wrapped in a nightmare seen in a reflection, played backwards on a tarnished screen.

What David Lynch has accomplished is to fashion a space where pop culture and transcendent art can merge into something fresh, unique and distinctly different. Taking a look at episode 8 of the return, Noel Murray of the Times writes, "There’s nothing to point to in the history of television that helps describe exactly what this episode attempts." It's like an alternative version of Terrence Malick's divisive Tree of Life except it's on television ... something that isn't for everyone. My girlfriend (who hasn't seen any Twin Peaks) walked in on this episode and was thoroughly disgusted, turned off and almost made physically ill by it. This episode (and many parts of others, especially the first two parts) really are Transformative Television -- occupying an interpretative place where meaning is not distinctly assigned but rather allowed to float where the audience want it to go, where answers are never certain and never spoon-fed.

Got a light? Does Twin Peaks ask a lot from the audience? Does it demand a conversation or two to flesh out all the intricacies -- to find meaning in the noise? Does it defy easy categorization and need to be watched closely? Is a lot riding on the finale? I think the answer to all of them is yes -- especially the last one. Most critics are sitting on the fence, waiting to see what Lynch has in store for the last two hours before they're willing to go on record about the significance of the series moving forward. Metacritic score is just 74, but I anticipate that will go up once finale reviews start coming out and authors begin going on record about the overall critical significance of Twin Peaks Season 3.